The Beer Nut: Top honors for Framingham brewery

Wednesday

Feb 12, 2014 at 4:11 PMFeb 12, 2014 at 4:23 PM

By Norman MillerDaily News staff

Framingham’s Jack’s Abby Brewing - and other breweries throughout New England - earned top honors in Rate Beer’s recent lists released in the past week.Each year, Rate Beer compiles several thousand of its user reviews posted by members to its website, ratebeer.com, and then they create lists called "Top of …" in several categories.Jack’s Abby of Framingham was one of the top winners in several categories.The highest award for Jack’s Abby was being named one of the Top 100 Breweries in the World (there are 16,000 breweries represented on the site). Other New England breweries that earned the honor include Boston Beer Company (Samuel Adams) of Boston, Allagash Brewing Company and Maine Beer Company of Maine, Smuttynose Brewing Company of New Hampshire and Grassroots Brewery of Vermont.The top five breweries, in order, were AleSmith Brewing Company of California, Hill Farmstead Brewery of Vermont, Three Floyds Brewing Company of Indiana, Russian River Brewing Company of California and Bells Brewery of Michigan.Jack’s Abby Brewing was also named the Top Brewery in Massachusetts, while Samuel Adams Utopias was named the Top Beer brewed in the state and the Trillium Brewing Company of Boston was named the Top New Brewery in the state and the sixth best in the country."We couldn't be more excited to after only 2-1/2 years to be named the best brewery in the state and make the world's top 100 list," said Jack Hendler, who founded the brewery with his brothers Eric and Sam. "We've taken a huge risk deciding to run an all-lager brewery, and we now see that consumers are beginning to understand what we're trying to accomplish here. As we continue to grow, our goal is to bring the best beer to market as well as brew new and exciting beers. We've taken a bold step trying to educate the consumer about our lagers. You can expect that going forward we have plenty of new tricks up our sleeves, ranging from very traditional beers to even more extreme examples of lager brewing. We hope we can set an example of how craft lager brewing can be relevant in today's marketplace."Peter Egelston, founder and president of Smuttynose, also said he was honored by his brewery earning a place in the Top 100 list."It’s really humbling to know that people all over the world are drinking and enjoying our beers; we thank them all," he said. "When I’m working at my desk in the brewery, it can sometimes be easy to lose the scale of how widely our beers travel with ‘Brewed in New Hampshire,’ on them."New England was also heavily represented on the Top 100 Beers of 2013. Among the beers on the list included Sam Adams’ Utopias; the Alchemist of Vermont’s Heady Topper; Hill Farmstead’s Abner, Double Citra, Edward, Everett, Friendship and Reunion, Society & Solitude #5 and Susan; Lawson’s Finest Liquids of Vermont’s Double Sunshine IPA; and Maine Beer Company’s Lunch.The honors continued for Jack’s Abby Brewing in the Top Beers by Style. Jack’s Abby’s Mass Rising, Hoponius Union and ABCS all won gold in the "Bock, Strong Lager" category, while its Kiwi Rising won a silver in the same category. Jack’s Abby’s Cascadian Schwarzbier won a silver in the "Dark Lager," category.Other Massachusetts award winners included a gold for Samuel Adams’ Utopias in the "Strong Ale" category and golds for Enlightenment Ale’s Day Trip and Tree House’s Eureka in the "English-style Pale and Bitter" category.Jack’s Abby’s Mass Rising was also recognized as one of the Top New Releases in 2013, as were six Hill Farmstead beers, two Maine Beer Company beers, Tree House’s Julius and Green and Trillium’s Fort Point Pale Ale.Jack’s Abby is not alone in MetroWest for taking home awards. The Horseshoe Pub & Restaurant in Hudson was named the Top Restaurant in Massachusetts, while Julio’s Liquors of Westborough was named the Top Retailer in the state.Email Norman Miller at nmiller@wickedlocal.com or call 508-626-3823. Check out the Beer Nut blog at blogs.wickedlocal.com/beernut. Follow him on Twitter at @realbeernut. Also check out "Norman Miller, The Beer Nut" on Facebook.